Discussing all things relating to Education, Technology Adoption, Organisational Culture and Start Ups... And the Role that Sales plays in EdTech

Friday, 27 November 2015

Connected Educator Appreciation Day

Thanksgiving in the US yesterday...Black Friday today...I
found out about Community Management through Community Manager Appreciation Day (And am SO thankful that I did!)...EdChat Moderators and Connected Educators put a lot of unpaid time
into their chats & edcamps, and generally helping others...I'm looking to raise some funds to bring some Connected Educator friends to Scotland for a Digital Citizenship Summit...

Mash it all together and what do we get: A Connected Educator Appreciation Day #CEduAD?

What could this look like? Perhaps a day where suppliers follow their "Black Friday" counterparts and offer a "Happy Edu Monday" discount and/or do a bit of "Social Tipping" to thank Connected Educators for all they do to help others... Including advocating the tools they
like, which saves companies on sales overheads.

Perhaps particularly applicable to the venture capital backed companies who have the
luxury of being able to take their time with development AND are able to charge
nothing for their products AND who get a lot of support from educators.

I've looked at the idea of an EdChat Moderator Day, see EdChat-a-thon at the end of this post:

Neither idea took off. With Get2ISTE the concept was proved but this is by no means guaranteed to be a success, see Get2ISTE2016 - Ways to Get Support During ISTE2015 to find out why. There was also the fact that most of the support was family/friends and few suppliers.I find that re-presenting old ideas at a different
times and in a different context sometimes works.

Connected Educator Appreciation Day
So as it's Black Friday, I thought I would test this idea and see what kind
of response it gets.

Let's see if people get behind the idea of some sort of
Connected Educator Appreciation Day hashtag... Maybe #CEduAD and
see if people start using it and discussing the idea.

In my EdChatMod ISTE or Bustpost I estimated that EdChat moderators have contributed anything
between $3-6,000 of unpaid time into their chats each year.These educators have neither asked to be
recompensed AND they didn't like the suggestion when I first suggested it. I believe the reason for this is due, at least in part, to the fact that educators tend to be selfless givers... they give help to anyone who asks, but rarely ask for help themselves.

If this was not the case they might have a little bit of a war
chest so they could get more "connected" and help more educators by being able to afford the costs
for #DigCitSummitUK.

If educators don't like me re-raising the topic... or, if like #Get2ISTE, suppliers don't rally round that's absolutely fine, no harm done. I happen to have a plan B for #DigCitSummitUK. Perhaps the 20-30 Connected Educators who want to come to the event will be interested in EARNING the
costs that would allow them to get to Scotland.

Oh and don't worry, I know how busy educators are... so this will be along the
lines of a 5 min favour: Something that they can do for others that will only take them a moment but could have a big impact on the recipient.

Want to hear more? Start chatting about the idea of a Connected Educator Appreciation Day on #CEduAD and I'll tell you more ;)